DFSD's motivational ramblings...

debtfreesomeday

Hi wantabetterlife X

Thanks for your reassurance and sharing your story with me. It's not until you go through something like this and start talking about it that you realise there are a lot of other people silently suffering too. It's not at all nice to know other people are going through similar things and experiencing similar emotions, but it is nice to know I'm not completely losing the plot! Thanks for your support and I really hope things are going as well as they can for you and your Mum at the moment. x

debtfreesomeday

Hi Squeezy :hello:

Welcome to MSE and to my diary! Thank you for your kind words too, although it feels like it's such a long slog from my point of view, I come on here and realise that I'm actually doing well and have got rid of a lot of the debt really quickly.

Sorry to hear you're having a bad time worrying about things at the moment, maybe it will help if you too keep a diary of what you aim to do and how you can do it etc. As you've probably read, mine's often a load of drivel that I'm just thinking about at athe time, but it is great for recording your progress and looking back. Other people's comments are really helpful too.

Yes, you can definitely do a lot to help reduce your debt more quickly. We don't have a lot of spare cash at all and never have because of these debts, but it's just about re-arranging the little cash you do have left, keeping track of where it goes and certainly keeping track of your budgets. The snowball calculator at whatsthecost is a fantasticly helpful tool too, and also motivational.

As for surveys, I do lightspeed ones and also pine cone - but these are not that regular. I tried signing up to other sites but rarely hear from those.
You could always try entering the competitions on the comps board too if you have a spare minute. I know a lot of people do this and sell the prizes they have won on ebay etc to help pay off their debts.

Music magppie is a great site to get rid of cds / dvds / games etc. Amazon has been great for us - listing and selling books and cds / dvds. Car boot sales are also a good way to raise a bit of cash as is ebay, but the latter two take a little bit more time and patience in my case!

I believe the oldstyle board on these forums (moneysaving old style) has some great suggestions to feed a family very cheaply. I'm not sure if you have a slow cooker, but ours is often used when we have the cheapest cuts of meat and want to do something nice with it.

Good luck with your debt-busting plan and if you need a friend anytime just pop back on over!

DFSD
X

debtfreesomeday

Morning...

We had a lovely weekend; had friends to stay with us whom we hadn't seen for ages. We pretty much kept within our budget too - just a couple of pounds out if I've calculated correctly which I'm not worried about.

Had to fill the car up this morning, at a cost of £37. That leaves £105 left in our petrol budget this month, as I've upped it to £180 a month due to hubby having to use the car for work. He does get those expenses back which varies from £20 - £40 a month depending on how many miles he's covered. It will be nearer £40 this month I think.

I had 3 items unsold on ebay, 1 sold for £4 something so I'll wrap that up and post it tomorrow. Also need to check on my Amazon account and see how that's going - no more sales from there to report.

I have also spent a bit of money on myself! I've ordered myself some clothes in a sale online. A pair of trousers, 2 tops and a scarf for £40 inc delivery. I used a voucher code for 10% off too. I got quite embarrassed by the state of my wardrobe at the weekend when we had friends with us - I really struggled to find something to wear as I have only about 4 outifts I rotate in the week which consist of 2 pairs of jeans (1 fitting much better than the other!) about 3 hoodies and 4 or 5 tops that fit me. I have one pair of shoes for everday use (which I noticed a hole in at the weekend :eek:) and a pair of flip flops! I'm sat here at work at my desk trying to hide my feet as far under the desk as I can as I'm aware my shoes don't go with the trousers I have on at all but it's the only pair I have! I don't really have anything nice to wear for a meal out etc.

Hubby is so lovely to me, and he pretty much ordered me to go and order some stuff or he'd do so himself (and goodness knows what I'd end up with!). He's always telling me to spend some money on myself and buy some clothes as he's aware how uncomfortable and self conscious I feel at the moment. I just don't like to when it could be going towards our debts.

I'm back on my healthy eating regime now too. We relaxed a little over the weekend and in the past couple of weeks when we were feeling rough and down; but we're back on it today, it can only help us feel better.

I have made a note to give EGG a ring this week to check about balance transfer offers as I'm due one this month, if they decide to offer one... please Mr Egg, PLEASE!

DFSD
X

debtfreesomeday

I phoned Egg this morning and, just as I thought, they shall not be offering me a promotional balance transfer rate - apparently this is only guaranteed for the first 2 years of the account being opened and it's been a lot longer than that! :mad::mad::mad:

I guess the plan is to wait and see what rate virgin whack the interest up to and then transfer it our to egg at 16.9% if it's above that (which I'm guessing it will be! :rolleyes:). It doesn't look like we can get another 0% card (we've both tried) so that's our best bet. I've done a snowball based on this rate though and it's not as bad as I thought it would be if we continue to greatly overpay the balance which we will be doing. It's just annoying, that's all.

In an attempt to limit the damage as much as possible, I've had a look at our bank account and worked out we could afford to pay another £50 or so off this month, so I've paid £51.31 off the egg card to get it to under £2.5k - it's now at £2499! :rotfl:Only a pound under, but, psychologically, it helps. a little... ok, not that much actually...

It's 3 weeks until my payday, when I shall be putting most of the overtime I've earned towards the credit cards too. I'm debating whether to save say £20 back to put into our new bed fund though... think I shall wait and see how much overtime I actually get and how much the taxman takes first. :rolleyes: Think I would be happier paying it off the card - would mean we could clear £500+ next month which would be a huge boost! :j

DFSD
X

debtfreesomeday

Just paid ebay fees of 13.84 out of the bit I left in my paypal account specifically for that purpose. :rolleyes: That left £8.43 in there which has now been paid off the egg card, leaving the balance now at £76.97. :T

debtfreesomeday

I have some news... :j:TTHE EGG CARD IS PAID OFF! :T:j

We discussed it and decided to scrap the 'new mattress / bed' saving fund for now as we can't afford to save regularly to it, and pay the egg card off with that money instead. Makes a whole bunch more sense I think. Off to update my signature.

wantabetterlife

Well done DFSD:j. Psychologically it must feel great to have one less debt to pay off. Your just right to treat yourself to a few clothes much more essential than a new mattress...lol.

wam73

Hi all, have been scanning through this thread all last night and tonight. Finally got to the end!!!! I think it's an amazing diary and given me so much insperation to get moving and try and make some money. Thank you for your continued writing and letting us know what you are going through. It is truly amazing that you have kept this up for so long and I hope I have half of your energy to keep going and pay those debts off.
Keep up the good work. I am a subscriber now and look forward to your posts.
Wendy. x
ps just seen my sig lol, long time ago i was on here. Will update asap.

debtfreesomeday

Couldn't agree more wantabetterlife! We're currently sleeping in our spare room which has a lovely comfy bed anyway!

Hi and welcome wam73 :hello:. A huge well done on reading through all of my nonsense - must've taken you ages (I seem to mutter away to myself a lot!).
Glad it may have given a little encouragement in the money-making department, I think the rule that we've learnt is that every little bit helps. Even the odd £1+ sales we've had through Amazon have really mounted up to chip away at the big debts. Feel free to 'pop in' anytime, it's always nice to have visitors!

DFSD
X

debtfreesomeday

This morning I have been playing around with the snowball calculator (again! I'm addicted - I can't help it!). It's taken me until now to realise that you can record every payment you make and watch the balance come down... :rolleyes: wish I'd found that little trick earlier!
Anyway, now I've found it, I've put all of last month's and this month's planned payments in. Once this month's have all been paid, we will have cut our debt free date by another few months. :dance:

We shall be overpaying one loan when we have got rid of the credit cards, which will cut 4 years + off of it! :eek: . Then we shall be saving money to pay off the last loan (which can't be overpaid), and paying it off in full early when we have enough saved. With this plan of action in mind, the trusty snowball calculator tells me we will be debt free in 29 months. But I fully intend to smash at least 5 months off that, if not more, so we're debt free within 2 years! :rolleyes::D.

Hmm, off to ponder on how to raise all that extra dosh... :think::whistle::think: